Former District 4 Republican candidate Mark Fennel had this to say about the upcoming special election in a comment on Maryland Moment:I've called an emergency meeting of my closest political advisors in my "War Room" to develope a detailed battle plan of attack. Indeed, the "Dogs of War" have been summoned.
Maybe Fennel is right. What if this is part of a scheme by Hugo Chavez to build a Citgo refinery in Burtonsville? Or perhaps Navarro is plotting to declare martial law and force East County residents to dig a tunnel all the way to Latin America. Or maybe Navarro and Vladimir Putin have signed a secret agreement to build a Russian missile silo under Fennel’s house.
Is this the same Nancy Navarro who negotiated, and placed an over-the-top teachers contract at the feet of the Council to deal with, when faced with unsustainable budgets, and massive budget deficits?
Is the the same Nancy Navarro who highlighted Gustavo Torres's praise of her in a press release, the same Torres who is the Executive Director of the illegal immigrant lobby group, Casa of Maryland. The same Torres who recently flew to Hugo Chavez's Venezuala, where Navarro was born, to acquire a $1.5 Million grant for CASA of Maryland. Venezuala, who just expelled our ambasaddors, had military maneuvers with Russia, and constantly threatens to cut off our oil.
And she highlighted Gustavo Torres's endorsement of her in her last campaign for this seat!
Anyone but Navarro!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark D. Fennel
Or maybe Mark Fennel needs to see Robin Ficker for lessons on how to temper his rhetoric.
Of course, all of this comes on the heels of last year’s illegal anti-Navarro robocalls. Why is it that the cheapest, lowest, dirtiest shots are always directed at Navarro?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
First Cheap Shot of the Special Election
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10 comments:
The biggest cheap shot of all is being directed at the homeowners of Council District 4. The 8 council members have decided that the new councilmember from District 4 will not be able to vote on the budget. So they are planning to set the election dates back where the budget battles will already be over again.
The other four council members who represent single member districts know that the smaller the piece of the pie for District 4, the larger the piece of the budget pie for Districts l, 2, 3, and 5. For the second year in a row, the homeowners of District 4 are being treated as ATMs and stepchildren by the council.
On the other hand, the fact that only 8 Council Members will vote on the budget makes it legally impossible for them to break the charter limit on property taxes. The recently-passed Ficker Amendment requires approval from all nine Council Members to allow property tax receipts to grow faster than the rate of inflation.
Adam you always make good points, but you and I know that the battle over whether the charter limit will be violated for a 5th time will be fought in 2010. In 2006, the homeowner-unfriendly council increased the budget 14.6% so they could spread goodies around to those voting in the party primary.
With a council member from District 4 not having a seat at the table for the budget votes in 2008 AND 2009, District 4 will surely be shorted. Let's make a deal. What do you think of leaving your council member out of the budget votes in 2010 and seeing if your district is treated fairly?
P.S. Thank you for admitting that Question B on property tax relief has stopped our homeowner-unfriendly council from exceeding the charter property tax limit a 5th time in 2009. That is why the voters of District 4 passed Question B by 2,000 votes over the opposition of Mr. Kramer, Ms. Navarro and the entire council.
I acknowledge your point. But it's a bit unusual to hear an anti-tax activist of your caliber talking about how important it is for politicians to bring home spending for their constituents.
Mr. Ficker, do you plan on supporting any D4 candidate this time around?
Adam, I'm not anti-tax. Just anti-tax increase in a recession. Montgomery County's economic stimulus plan has been to stimulate their spending through increases in property, energy, car, income, sales, and corporate taxes as well as hikes in Metro, water, electricity, and speed camera fees so homeowners could plan to pay more. I prefer U.S. Senator Isakson's plan to give a $15,000 tax credit to new home buyers over the council's plan to give people with tanking(even Warren Buffet lost 44%) 401ks a 13.5% property tax increase.
Adam,
It looks like the first Navarro proxy, has emerged.
My first point, is that there's nothing cheap, low, or dirty about discussing associations. The type of friends you keep, are important in defining who you are as a candidate.
My second point, is that my facts are accurate. If I was spreading misinformation, you might have a case.
My third point, is that at The Peoples Baptist Church forum, I, along with all the other past candidates, stood up and denouced the robo-calls against Navarro which were going out.
The bottom line, is that whoever the frontrunner is will always take the heat in politics. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. In the last election, it was Don, today, it may be Navarro.
As far as bringing Robin into it, or discussing martial law or Putin, not sure how you made that leap from my post. However, if a foreign government, any foreign government is mucking around in our communities by funding non-profits which provide services, it should concern us all as Americans. And those acquiring the funds should not be embraced as political allies, but condemned.
I encouage you to go to the Embassy of Venezuala's web site and pull a letter from the Ambassador of Venezuala to Councilman Marc Elric, mentioning the strong relationships Venezuala has in Montgomery County. There's nothing cheap, or dirty about that statement, these are the FACTS.
Mark D. Fennel
Adam, there was an excellent article in Sunday's WaPo "Outlook" section. you might want to read Foreign Spies Are Serious. Are We?, by former National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave. She rightly notes that we give all sorts of lip-service, at the national level, to counterintelligence. But at the other levels of government, there seems to be a total lack of the concept, outside of Ground Zero New York. In no place is funding adequate, and in particular all local politicians are not much concerned with the Big Picture, not even when the local politicians are effectively the front door to the Nation's Capital.
Now, I am not suggesting that Gustavo Torres is the equivalent of Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanson. I am not sure how he could be, he's not deeply embedded in the US intelligence community apparat.
Still, the man has ambitions, that much is clear, as perhaps his proteges and associates. His presentation on "US: Ripe for Revolution" was evidently well-received at an international socialist conference. However "Progressive" you call yourself, Adam, I'm not quite sure if you want to step up and declare that it's time for a Revolution here in the States. Traditionally, we have those on a 4 to 8 year cycle and we just had one. You won. Get over it.
Now that you have your new regime, it's time to secure it. And in times of turmoil such as this, we historically find the seeds of the unexpected revolutions. Note that the French Revolution didn't start because people liked ideologies; the French Revolution and the ideologies themselves started because people were starving in the streets. We're not quite at that point as much as professional hecklers like Hugo Chavez would like that. Por que no te callas, Sr Chavez? Even the King of Spain thinks Chavez is a jerk. I'm not going to give him enough credit to suppose that he himself could orchestrate significant operations in the US that exceeded the level of public disruptions along the lines of a General Strike. That doesn't mean he sdoes not wish he could.
Robin,
You really can't be serious about understanding what the voters in Council 4 want(a place you don't live or vote).
No one expected the passing of Don or Marilyn. For those of us who are a part of Council 4, it is amazing that you feel this need to interject where do not live or work or vote, especially when your attempts at understanding personal feelings is so ham handed.
To move the election up -- as you suggest -- gives a leg up on the insiders, whom are the very people you have spent a career going after.
The only way to get someone in office before the key budget votes is to have someone appointed. Tell me you have not switched sides????
I am glad that we will have a special election not an appointed official in there.
More importantly, there is a personal and humane concern, which is something you clearly lack. In the case of Marilyn's passing you were on the Maryland Moment blog within a day advocating for how and when the election should be. That was tactless.
I love politics almost as much as you but there needs to be a human concern. Has no one you ever cared about died suddenly? Most of us need time to grieve. I do. Obviously you don't. Fine that's your right but don't jump into this election telling us what we need. You don't live here.
And there you are immediately talking about a fix is in. Please. You compassion and understanding of the human side of politics is why your possible good ideas repeatedly miss.
You are a smart and quick thinking man who has zero sense of the personal side of things.
There is an old adage in politics (and in life) that people do not care how much you know until you show how much you care.
You get an "A" on the former and a "F" on the latter.
Kevin, you and the truth are strangers.
Aw.c'mon, Kevin, Mr Ficker is just trying to set the mood.
In literature, I think it's called 'foreshadowing'.
Adam: I'm not entirely sure why you feel called-upon to ridicule people who really dislike not just CASA, but the way it's wormed all through out County and even State political process.
Frankly, outside of either huge amounts of money that hasn't been declared on Board of Elections sites, or perhaps blackmail of a sort that would make Marion Barry blush, I'm completely at a loss to explain the degree of influence.
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